I'd seen all the beautiful Viking ads, mostly while watching Downton. It seemed unattainable. But when my sister joined me in retirement, our husbands gave us time to celebrate together and our choice of Viking cruises. Since we'd never taken a cruise, we were wary. But Viken Kabadian, who took our call, was immensely helpful answering newbie questions and guiding our decisions.

Every detail in the flight to Venice was worked out beautifully, and the staff that met us on arrival simply took over and we were soon in our beautiful cabin unpacking. Then we wandered the ship awed by the spacious openness and public areas. Everything sparkled.

Every morning we took port pictures to keep our friends back home apprised of the next adventure. We had booked every standard excursion, so days were full of cobblestone streets in medieval fortresses, sea vistas, churches and tiny chapels, all faithfully identified by "lollipop" toting guides. I learned much about the history of each locale, but had plenty of time to poke around in tiny shops and alleyways. Generally we spent afternoons on the lanai, keeping our journal current, and resting before dinner. When issues of a bombing in Istanbul caused concern, Viking elected to adjust our itinerary to minimize time in Istanbul and take in a different port. Then they handled necessary flight changes and notified us of different schedules with great efficiency. Read more